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Monday, October 17, 2011

Family Ties

We have been attending adoption classes on Saturdays. A recent topic was about how to deal with the wait. One of the tips was to go out and enjoy your life and try not to put things on hold because you are waiting. Have fun as a couple. Well, we have been doing that this past month.

I've been a busy girl. We had a fun visit with the cousins. I've gained my first sister in law, Stella and my first nephew, Landon! I cannot tell you how excited I am about both.

The cousins came to town for a long weekend. We had a great time catching up and showing off our new neighborhood. They walked their b-u-t-t-s off. They wanted authentic Mexican food one night and we'd remembered a place that "alternate universe Jenn and Marlon*" told us about. The restaurant was only a mile walk in Greenpoint. What's another mile, so off we went. It was authentic, delicious and inexpensive. I think a Grandma was in the back cooking. So if you are ever in Greenpoint and have a hankering for Mexican food try Acapulco.

Three days after the cousins left, we went to San Francisco to celebrate Marlon's brother Joe and Stella's wedding. Marlon was Joe's best man and held up his duties perfectly. I played the part of the wife of the best man making sure those guys looked great on the big day. The wedding was beautiful and we danced the night away! I had forgotten how much I loved San Francisco. Joe and Stella are an awesome couple and we couldn't be happier having Stella join our family. Congrats to Mr. and Mrs.!

Just days after returning home from San Fran, we turned around went down to Virginia for the birth of my handsome nephew, Landon Palihikeahemakaniakekai. He is absolutely the cutest baby I've ever seen. I was even guilty of showing pictures of him to the pharmacist. Hey, I am a proud aunt. I must get that from my Granny. She'd show our baby pictures to people when we were standing right there as full grown adults. Miss you Granny. Anyway, I got to spend some time with the little guy holding him, staring at his sweet face, feeding him, burping him and spoiling him. I let his Daddy do the diaper changing. I am logging in practice hours for when one day I have my baby. Landon is just so amazing. Just look at that face!

Now I am sure you have all been wondering about his middle name. Landon is half Hawaiian and to honor his heritage they gave him a Hawaiian middle name. Palihikeahemakaniakekai means the gentle touches of the soft blowing sea breezes. I wish my name meant something wonderful like that. I've been practicing everyday on how to say it and I think I have it. Thanks for the help, Will.

So we've haven't had time to worry about the waiting. We have new family members to keep us busy!

*P.S. Alternate universe Jenn and Marlon are a couple that we met while looking for apartments this past winter. The couple was moving to Sunnyside for more space, as we were doing in LIC. "Jenn" was a cute blonde with glasses and worked in IT in our old neighborhood, "Marlon" was tall, dark-hair and worked in publishing. They had their cats, bikes and books just like us. We didn't take their apartment, but we sat and chatted for like an hour talking about everything. When we left we gave them the name "alternate universe Jenn and Marlon", they so could have been us. Que the music!